Seasons

Each year I plan to fish more and fish more places, but some years other aspects of life simply trump fly fishing. This last summer, selling our house, buying another and moving slowed me right down. That said I did have a few good days.

The highlight of last season for me wasn't my biggest fish of the year. It was a 17" trout I caught on Slate Run. Slate Run is a very beautiful stream. I've read that it holds a large population of browns, but I suspect that is an exaggeration. It's clear and it's tough and I've had more bad days fishing that stream than good ones. I was there for a rainy few days and we didn't catch much. March Browns were coming off and I hooked my trout in a perfect fast deep run under some trees.

Re-org

When we moved late this summer, I packed up all my fly tying gear by putting it all in a big plastic bin. I just got around to reorganizing it last weekend. It took several hours, but now my tying desk is pretty well organized for a winter of fly tying. I ended up finding all kinds of materials I haven't looked at in years.

I'm looking forward to re-developing that winter fly tying habit. I'll go through my fly boxes first to see what I have and what I need, then I'll start tying for the major hatches I fish in various styles. I use a lot of Usuals and Comparaduns, and soft-hackles for emergers, plus a handful of buggy looking nymphs and a handful of catskill type dries and another handful of attractors. I use parachute ants as a probing fly and depending on where I'm fishing, I sometimes use various beetle patterns.

I'm not a fancy fly tier by my flies do what I ask of them. I don't carry nearly as many patterns as I used to, simply because I don't think I need them. When I travel to other locations, if I see some locally tied flies in a fly shop I usually buy up a fistful. I do this because sometimes the local guys really get it right for their area, plus I like to support local fly tiers.